When you open IntelliJ IDEA and don’t already have a project open, you’ll see the Welcome Screen. From the Welcome Screen you have several options. You can create a new project, open an existing project or get a project from VCS.

If you’re new to IntelliJ IDEA and haven’t opened any projects yet, the Welcome Screen will look like this.

If you’ve already opened projects in IntelliJ IDEA before, you’ll have a list of recent projects in your Welcome Screen. Click any of these projects to open them.